The greatest impetus for accelerating the utilization
of geographic concepts and techniques
by academics and practitioners came from a
combination of works emphasizing the criminality
of places (see Roncek 1981; Stark 1987)
and funded projects involving collaborations
between research teams and police agencies examining
hot spots and drug markets. Sherman,
Gartin, and Buerger (1989) found that a majority
of predatory crimes in a city occur in
relatively few places or small spaces. Moreover,
police are repeatedly summoned to the same
places (Sherman 1987).